Best in Show

Sometimes extreme geekery is charming. (As you may know, I do not use the word “geek” lightly.) I spotted this on Phil’s Bad Astronomy Blog. You know what shape it is trying to evoke, I presume. Know also that this structure is 8.8 micro meters across, and that the subject was magnified some 5000 times normal size to make the image. I’ve no idea how they did this (the phrase “fabricated in one-billionth scale by 30 kV Ga+ focused-ion-beam CVD using phenanthrene gas” does not reveal all to me), but it is impressive. It was submitted by Takayuki Hoshino & Shinji Matsui, Himeji Institute of Technology to a competition, which it won in its class. Click here for more images.